Futures Planning from an Educator Perspective

[MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Dr. Susan Upshaw, and I'm the transition specialist for Georgetown ISD. I'm Valerie Conner, transition specialist for the east Williamson County co-op. Thanks for joining us for a conversation about futures planning. Susan, in your mind, what is the most important aspect of futures planning? Good question. I think that it is working with families, working with students to know that there really is life after high school. And that we're working to set the goal of helping our kids be as independent as possible. And I think as educators, we have to be concerned about what happens when they leave us. Just like you said earlier, we can't just focus on the graduation. They met their credits, they passed her classes. There has to be that consideration of what's happening when they leave us. Have we really prepared them for what's ahead? So keeping that in the back of our minds, that we're trying to help these students be as independent as possible, is just as important as that graduation piece of paper. For me, I find that one of the big important things that we as educators can do when doing transition planning with families is listening. I think a lot of times, as professionals in the education field, we're not real good at listening. We're good at telling and trying to say what we think should happen. I think that listening to people and students and parents is a very powerful tool that we as educators can utilize in having good outcomes. Because what I've learned in life is that people don't work toward goals that aren't meaningful to them. So it doesn't matter what my goals for a young person are. If it's not a meaningful goal for that young person and for that family, then odds are that we're not going to expend a lot of time and energy working toward those goals. So listening is a big piece. And I think that what goes along with me for listening is relationship. I think that people do a lot for people that they have relationship with. And so I don't think that we can have successful transition services if we don't build a relationship with students. If we don't build a relationship with parents and talk to them about we are partners, mom and dad. We're partners, young adult, in planning for your future, that we are a team and we want relationship with you. When it's good, when it's bad, when it's ugly, when we're frustrated, when we're happy, when things are going well, when they're not going as well as we would like. We're still here for you. And we're not going to give up on this process. And we're going to work with you in a relationship to help your young adult get where they want to be in life. And I know it can be so scary for parents to think about their student with disabilities being as independent as possible, but it's such a great thing when it all comes together. So I think that when we're talking to parents, that showing that we really are on the same team, that we want what's best for your child is one of the key things we can communicate to them.